Saskatchewan governments should have put more money aside to address child poverty when its economy was flourishing.

That’s one of the conclusions from a 2019 University of Regina report.

In today’s third part of the CJWW news five-part series on the report called “Child and Family Poverty in Saskatchewan”, a co-author says provincial governments shortchanged the children of financially struggling families.

Miguel Sanchez says government funding is crucial in addressing the problem.

He points out the percentage would have been much higher than 26-percent in 2017 without money from the province going to key social programs reducing the percentage from 38.

The Associate Professor of Social Work says instead of following Norway’s example of setting aside 3-trillion dollars in gas and oil revenue between 2007 and 2010, Saskatchewan faltered, leaving many children suffering.

In part four tomorrow, Sanchez looks at how inequities in the tax system have contributed to child poverty.